November 15, 2016

As Mediaite’s Dan Abrams first reported, when you search “final election numbers” or “final vote count 2016,” the first result in Google’s “in the news” box is from a scrappy-looking WordPress blog called 70 News that appears to be run by one person. The article, posted on November 12th, features the headline “FINAL ELECTION 2016 NUMBERS: TRUMP WON BOTH POPULAR ( 62.9 M -62.2 M ) AND ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES ( 306-232)…HEY CHANGE.ORG, SCRAP YOUR LOONY PETITION NOW!”

The same story is also coming up if you use Google Assistant.

[…] 70 News post claims that the source material for the article is “Twitter posts,” specifically, this tweet from a user named Michael.

Michael, on the other hand, is sourcing an article from the ultraconservative tabloid USA Supreme, which argues that Clinton might win the number of votes “counted” but will not win the number of votes “cast” because of ignored Republican absentee ballots. (Michael also believes that Trump has been singled out by God to be president of the United States, a conspiracy theory popular with 4chan users who believe that Pepe the Frog is a reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian deity.)